Design and testing of polar-orthotropic multi-layered composites under rotational load

The growing requirements for efficient and reliable high-performance rotors have led to an increased application of advanced fiber-reinforced composites. For an efficient feasibility analysis, analytical calculation methods for composite structures can provide a first design draft of typical composite components without cumbersome finite element models to engineers having low experience with anisotropic materials. In these investigations, an analytical solution for polar-orthotropic multi-layered composite rotors under rotational load is presented by transferring the well-known formulation of the classical laminate theory given in Cartesian coordinates into a formulation given in a polar coordinate system taking into consideration of centrifugal loads. The analytical results are verified under different rotational speeds with standard finite element solutions and also with experimental results at selected positions from strain gauges and diffraction grating strain sensors. The results show the usefulness of analytical solutions for the design engineer and can be further expanded to take into consideration temperature and shrinkage effects. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).